McCaffrey eyes Ireland progress

The Republic of Ireland are a perennial threat for the continent's best at youth level, most spectacularly in 1998 when Brian Kerr's squads were crowned European champions at Under-16 and U18 level, an unparalleled achievement since UEFA introduced the junior competitions at the start of the 1980s.

Elite round
Surprisingly the last time Ireland were in a final tournament at underage level was the 2002 UEFA European Under-19 Championship, though they have always reached the second qualifying stage since. Manager Sean McCaffrey is the man charged with attempting to match the achievement of nine seasons ago, and is now looking ahead to the Elite round. But having drawn Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria he knows it will be no easy task to get his U19 squad to Austria as they stage Group 1 from 14-19 May.

Home advantage
"I am looking forward to it," McCaffrey told uefa.com "It's challenging but we are capable of doing well and the fact that it is in Ireland will be a big plus. We held a U19 group last year down in Cork and drew good crowds there, so we can get the crowds. Germany and Hungary are strong, we played the latter last year at U18 level. It will be interesting."

Near miss
Several members of this year's U19 squad came agonisingly close to helping Ireland to the U17 finals last season. Again mini-tournament hosts, they needed only a draw against Serbia and Montenegro to qualify in their final game. But with 2,500 fans inside Tolka Park, and national radio providing live updates, Ireland fell behind on two minutes and then had three players sent off before conceding twice more late on.

'Step up'
"We've always made the Elite round, had close games and not quite made it," admits McCaffrey. "Hopefully we will have learned from the mistakes of last year. We've been bringing on fellows who are a year younger, six of the U17s from last year. Young players are starting to emerge in Ireland, so there are things happening even though we haven't had the success Brian Kerr had in 1998. But we've been playing a decent brand of football and beating very good sides. In the qualifying round we beat the Dutch team who got to the [2005] U17 final. So we've played well, the most important thing is the development of players, teaching them to play the game correctly. Hopefully that will let them step on to the next level."

Talent
Of the current crop, Anthony Stokes has won headlines recently with his scoring feats for Scottish club Falkirk FC, where he is on loan from Arsenal FC. But he is not alone. "Hopefully he is going on to bigger things, but the group has a lot of good players," McCaffrey said. "We've got Adam Rooney who got five goals in the first two qualifying games, Keith Tracy: we've got a lot of talent at the moment."

Dilemma
The case of Stokes highlights a particular dilemma for the Ireland manager; most his squad are with well-resourced English and Scottish clubs, but that means they gain senior experience later than they would at home. "I would like to see them getting first-team experience earlier," McCaffrey said. "But having said that we are dependent on the Scottish and English clubs for the development of the players at the moment, though our own league is improving very quickly. It is difficult for all young players now in England as there are lots of foreign players."